Reading Success!

My son, Jack, has never been a good reader. He'd much rather play outside than read. So as a result, he always scored low on District reading tests because he couldn't read out loud fast enough or answer questions about what he was reading. Since he started public schools, he's been in the extra reading program and hasn't minded one bit being in there.

Yesterday, Jack came into my classroom holding a book. I thought it was the phonics reader he'd stuffed in his desk so he wouldn't have to read it at home (I'd emailed his teacher about it earlier). I asked him if everything was okay, and he said it was and that he wanted to show me something.

He produced his monitoring book. You know, the one where they keep track of your progress as a reader and graph it to death. Well, I noticed that the line between the previous reading time and this one had shot up dramatically. Turns out, Jack had read 81 words in one minute with one error (he had to be helped with the word "identical"). He'd gone from reading 42 words per minute the last time to 81 words per minute this time. I was so excited, and he was proud of his accomplishment.

Turns out that his 180* turn around has stemmed from this new reading program that the district purchased for Kinder through 2nd grade. Then each building principal was given the option of purchasing more. Our building principal purchased it for Grades 3 and 4, so Jack will get to use the program for another 2 years. Because Jack has taken on a new outlook on reading, he often spends an hour or so on this website working on passages and answering questions. now his sister wants in on the action as well, but unfortunately she's in pre-school so she can't do the program yet. Jason and I have found other websites for her and so the kids are often fighting over who gets the computer at night. I've got my laptop, so often times Jack uses that, while Caroline uses the one in the office.